Over 1,200 mispallalim were able to enter PA-occupied Shechem to visit the tziyun of Yosef HaTzaddik during the night, on the eve of Rosh Chodosh Shevat.

While the Oslo Agreement guarantees free access to holy sites, the IDF only permits such visits during the cover of darkness, well-aware that attempting such an operation during daylight hours would be a security nightmare. Soldiers protecting the bulletproof buses transporting mispallalim were attacked with rocks. No injuries were reported.

Successive Israeli governments continue to ignore the fact that the PA (Palestinian Authority) repeatedly permits its residents to desecrate the holy site and prohibits free access to the tziyun as per the PA’s obligation under the Oslo Accords. The kever has been under PA occupation since the IDF retreat under fire on October 1, 2000, in what is dubbed the al-Aqsa Intifada. As a result of decision not to act, border policeman Madhat Yousef bled to death over a period of hours because Israel feared a violent response from the PA and a rescue team was not sent to extricate him and his colleagues who were under siege at the kever.

As a result, the injured officer simply bled to death as Jerusalem ignored continued pleas for immediate assistance from the soldiers who were surrounded by the bloodthirsty Arab mob.

After Israel fled, the tziyun was burned and defiled by Israel’s peace partners.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)